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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28126659">haunted (by the thought of you, that's all)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>South Park</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Character Death, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Sad Craig Tucker, Supernatural Elements, they are juniors/about to be seniors in high school</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:46:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,222</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28126659</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>News spreads fast in the small mountain town of South Park, Colorado. But somehow, rumors spread even faster.</p><p>Craig tries as hard as he can to let it go. It almost feels like he's being followed by it. (He reminds himself that it isn't nice to call people 'it', but he isn't sure if he's talking about the friendship itself or the person it was with.)</p><p>OR</p><p>Tweek, Craig's fake boyfriend from seventh grade, mysteriously dies and it shouldn't matter to Craig but it has to, apparently, because he's pretty sure Tweek's fucking ghost is following him around.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clyde Donovan/Bebe Stevens background, Craig Tucker/Tweek Tweak, Kyle Broflovski/Stan Marsh background, Token Black/Nichole Daniels background</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>haunted (by the thought of you, that's all)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>News spreads fast in the small mountain town of South Park, Colorado. But<br/>
somehow, rumors spread even faster.</p><p>"I heard that he jumped."</p><p>"I heard he got hit by a car."</p><p>"I heard that Cartman was involved, pushed him off the bridge or something."</p><p>"Really, man? You really think Cartman would <em>kill</em> someone? He's an asshole, not a murderer."</p><p>"You heard him bragging about eating that kid's parents in fourth grade, dude. You don't know what he's capable of."</p><p>"He probably only said that because he's fat. Plus, we were kids. We probably didn't do half of the shit we remember doing."</p><p>"What do you think, Craig?" Kyle Broflovski looks at Craig as he stands behind him in the line to pick up their school lunch. Craig raises an eyebrow.</p><p>"About what?" Stan rolls his eyes in front of Kyle and grabs his tray, giving Kyle a look that says 'were you really expecting him to listen?'.</p><p>"The police said that. . ." Their conversation fades further and further out of his hearing as they move further away from Craig, much to his delight. He's never been able to stand being around Kyle for whatever reason. Maybe it's the constant anger that the redhead has festering inside of him, he decides, and maybe it's because of the red hair. He hides a chuckle at his own joke as he grabs his food, paying for it and making his way over to his table where Token sits, awaiting Craig, Jimmy, and Clyde's arrival. Token offers up a weird smile and Craig furrows his brows in response, soon sitting at their lunch table, opposite of where Token is sitting.</p><p>"Did you hear?" Token asks, watching Craig as if he were searching for some sort of problem. "I don't know how you could've <em>not</em> heard, but seriously, did you?"</p><p>Craig raises a brow again, this time at Token. "I heard someone died. Why're you looking at me like I've got a bomb strapped to my chest?" He asks, his voice flat and nasally. As per usual.</p><p>"Just. . . Someone? That's all you've heard? Jesus, man. Did you even listen to the announcement this morning? That the principal made?" Token begins to grow frustrated, his brows furrowing with aggravation. Craig simply shakes his head, his blank expression not changing a bit as he watches Token.</p><p>"Hey, what's with the s-s-s-sour faces?" Jimmy and Clyde arrive at the lunch table, Clyde placing Jimmy's tray down as well as his own. They exchange glances with Token, then both look over to Craig.</p><p>"He doesn't know?" Clyde asks quietly, talking to Token in the tone that somebody would spell the word 'bedtime' around a toddler. Craig makes a face at Clyde and Token, widening his eyes and motioning a shrug as if saying 'what' in the most sarcastic way possible without using any words at all. While Token glares in response to Craig's sarcasm, Clyde pulls out his phone and types something in quickly, soon sliding the phone across the table. The South Park News website was in the process of loading, so Craig sits quietly and waits. What could possibly be so serious on the news that it's made its way around the school? Not to mention, how did Craig not know about it yet? It has coursed its way through the high school already, gaining theory after theory about what happened to whoever died, and yet Craig hasn't heard a name?</p><p>Finally, the screen loads. A picture of a boy with golden blonde hair lying in a hospital bed appears at the top and it takes Craig no time at all to recognize the face on the screen, even with the change in appearance. The change in appearance was not voluntary; anybody that looked at the image could tell that much.</p><p>The photo was Tweek Tweak. Craig's eyes locked on the photo, glazing over as he slowly picked up the phone. Tweek had icy blue skin, pale almost purple lips, and dark bags under his eyes. His face looked hollow, but not in a - well- dead way. Just in an unhealthy way.</p><p>After staring at the photo for a moment, Craig's thumb quickly reaches the screen to scroll down and read the text. 'January 21, 5:32 AM | Tweek Tweak, 17, was found in critical condition last night at the bank of the South Park River, just south of the bridge. His parents have been notified. The South Park Police Department has yet to release any information about the boy's condition. UPDATE: January 21, 8:36 AM | Tweek Tweak has been reported deceased by the Hell's Pass Hospital. Time of death: 7:52 AM'</p><p>Tweek is dead? Craig looks up from the phone, not daring to meet the eyes of any of his friends. He simply slides the phone back to Clyde, stands up from the table, and brings his tray full of food a table over, sliding it to Kenny McCormick without a word and walking to the cafeteria exit. He doesn't notice the number of eyes on him or the heartbroken look that his friends are giving him as he walks out of the cafeteria with the same bored expression on his face as usual.</p><p>-</p><p>When he really thought about it, Craig wasn't sure if he even had the right to be upset. He didn't talk to Tweek. He hadn't since the seventh grade. But it wasn't like they'd had a falling out, they just. . . Stopped talking - lost touch over the course of a few months and that was that. It was slow, like honey dripping from a jar, but when it was gone? It was <em>gone</em>.</p><p>And now, Tweek was just. . . Gone? How was he supposed to accept that? And better yet, how was he supposed to act like it was his <em>right</em> to care? How was is anybody at school going to act like that? <em>Nobody</em> made an effort to talk to Tweek. And- what? Now people are just going to act like they were all Tweek's best friend? Like they all knew him like they knew the back of their hand?</p><p>Ninety percent of them don't even know Tweek's birthday. At least Craig can say that he does.</p><p>Slowly, Craig decides that he cannot allow himself to be upset, because it isn't his place. And in two weeks, the entire school will have moved on from this completely. People will go back to pretending Tweek never existed, and it'll be just like it was when Tweek was still alive.</p><p>And that fact is <em>killing Craig</em>.</p><p>As he lies on his bed, staring up at his ceiling which was decorated with lazily placed glow-in-the-dark stars, Craig decides that from what he does know about Tweek when he knew him, he wouldn't want to be pitied. Despite what everybody thought, Tweek (the way that Craig knew him in seventh grade) was not somebody who allowed himself to be walked all over, so Craig won't sit here and pretend that he's the most upset person in the world for the sake of everybody around him when the truth. . .</p><p>The truth is that he and Tweek were never as close as everyone liked to pretend they were. They fake dated in fourth grade, kept that up until seventh grade, and that was it.</p><p>That was it. Right?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello! Just want to say thank you for reading and if you enjoyed it, please leave kudos or a comment if you'd like to see more. Comments inspire me to keep going, otherwise, I get insecure and delete stories like a clown LOL</p></blockquote></div></div>
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